State of Iowa Archives: on Families & Children

ROMNEY: Speaker Gingrich said that he would like to eliminate in some cases the child labor laws so that kids could clean schools. I don't agree with that idea.

GINGRICH: I think virtually every person up here worked at a young age. What
I suggested was, kids ought to be allowed to work part-time in school, particularly in the poorest neighborhoods, both because they could use the money. Janitors who are unionized are paid more than the teachers. You take half of those janitors, you
could give lots of poor kids a work experience in the cafeteria and the school library and front office. I'll stand by the idea, young people ought to learn how to work. Middle class kids do it routinely. We should give poor kids the same chance to
pursue happiness.

ROMNEY: To have kids work in the library and to help out in school and to clean the blackboards does not require changing our child labor laws in this country. We of course should encourage more kids to [do that].

Source: Yahoo's "Your Voice Your Vote" debate in Iowa
Dec 10, 2011

Newt Gingrich:
Let poor kids work so they learn like middle class

ROMNEY: Speaker Gingrich said that he would like to eliminate in some cases the child labor laws so that kids could clean schools. I don't agree with that idea.

GINGRICH: I think virtually every person up here worked at a young age. What
I suggested was, kids ought to be allowed to work part-time in school, particularly in the poorest neighborhoods, both because they could use the money. If you take 1/2 of the New York janitors who are unionized and paid more than the teachers, an
entry-level janitor gets paid twice as much as an entry-level teacher. You take half of those janitors, you could give lots of poor kids a work experience in the cafeteria and the school library and front office. I'll stand by the idea, young people
ought to learn how to work. Middle class kids do it routinely. We should give poor kids the same chance to pursue happiness.

ROMNEY: To have kids work in the library does not require changing our child labor laws in this country.

Source: Yahoo's "Your Voice Your Vote" debate in Iowa
Dec 10, 2011

Rick Santorum:
Promote the family as economic anchor point

I grew up in a very modest home and was very blessed to have all my basic needs met. And one of the most basic needs was that I was blessed to have a mother and a father. That was the most important gift that I was given, that I had two parents who were
together, who loved me, who supported me and made me feel safe. And made the little things feel like luxuries because I had that sense of security.

Unfortunately, we see the family continuing to break down. And with that, the economic status of those
families. Single-parent households in America now have poverty levels approaching 40%. What we can do as a federal government, [is] to try to promote this institution of marriage.
Try to promote the family and make sure that families are elevated and supported and fathers and mothers are there to take care of their families and be there for their children. That's the most important luxury, is a mom and a dad.

Q: In 2006, when you were running for Congress, you described a moment in your life when your husband said you should study for a degree in tax law. You said you hated the idea. And then you explained, "But the Lord said, 'Be submissive.
Wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands.'" As president, would you be submissive to your husband?

A: Marcus and I will be married for 33 years this September 10th. I'm in love with him.
And what submission means to us, it means respect. I respect my husband. He's a wonderful, godly man, and a great father. And he respects me as his wife. That's how we operate our marriage. We respect each other. We love each other. And
I've been so grateful that we've been able to build a home together. We have five wonderful children and 23 foster children. We've built a business together and a life together And I'm very proud of him.

Q: A recent report found that middle class black families were not able to carry their children into the American middle class; many had fallen out of the middle class and into poverty. What can the president do?

A: One of the reasons that I’m running
for president is that the American dream has always meant that if you worked hard if you invested in your children then their lives could be better than yours. And that dream that so many generations fought for feels like it’s slipping away, not just for
African Americans increasingly but for all Americans. And so what do we need to do? We have to have a tax system that’s fair. I will take away tax breaks from company’s that are shipping jobs overseas and put tax breaks in the pockets of hardworking
Americans who deserve it. We’ve got to invest in education. If we can invest and understand that this is a crisis that doesn’t just effect black and brown people but all of America I’m confident that we can make a big difference.

Hillary Clinton: As I travel around America, I hear from so many people who feel like they’re just invisible to their government

Voice-over Announcer: Hillary Clinton has spent her life standing up for people others don’t see.

Hillary Clinton:
You know, if you’re a family that is struggling, and you don’t have health care well you are invisible to this President. If you’re a single mom trying to find affordable child care so you can go to work, well you’re invisible too.
And I never thought I would see that our soldiers who serve in Iraq and Afghanistan would be treated as though they were invisible as well.

Hillary: Americans from all walks of life across our country may be invisible to this President, but they’re not invisible to me and they won’t be invisible to the next President of the United States.

Source: AdWatch: TV advertisement in Iowa
Aug 13, 2007

Sam Brownback:
Highest priority is rebuilding the family

Q: What will you restore to the Oval Office?

A: Rebuilding the family. You know, in Washington DC, right now, 63% of the children are born out of wedlock. Nationwide, the number is 36%. You can raise a good child in that setting,
but it gets more difficult. The best place is between a mom and a dad bonded together for life. I would stand for life. And I would appoint the next justice I hope would be the voting decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Source: 2007 GOP Iowa Straw Poll debate
Aug 5, 2007

Alan Keyes:
Shape our children’s consciences in the fear of God

Q: How would you interrupt this culture of violence? A: The first thing we have to do is restore this country’s allegiance to its basic moral principles. We express great shock and outrage that we are bloodying the hallways of our schools with the blood
of our children. What about the blood of our children killed in the womb on the basis of a doctrine that completely rejects the basic
principles on which this nation was founded? If our rights come from God, then we ought to shape our children’s consciences in the fear of God. And I think that what we’re seeing in our
schools is the direct result of our failure to respect that heritage and to pass it on.

Source: Des Moines Iowa GOP Debate
Dec 13, 1999

Gary Bauer:
Columbine resulted from our undermining the sanctity of life

Eric & Dylan [the Columbine shooters] violated 17 gun laws that day. The deeper question is why did two boys do to fellow human beings, what would be impossible to imagine an American child doing to cats or dogs. What did we do that so undermined
the sanctity of life, that you could raise a couple of kid with such empty hearts? Part of it is that we undermine the sanctity of life by telling our children that they’ve got a constitutional right to take innocent human life if it’s in their way.

Source: Des Moines Iowa GOP Debate
Dec 13, 1999

John McCain:
Unfiltered Internet robs our children of their innocence

We parents should know what our children are seeing. I can’t tell you that I always know what my children are watching. I can’t tell you exactly what they’re seeing when they go to the mall. It’s my responsibility
[so] when we’re wiring every school and library with the Internet, each should have filtering software to filter out that stuff. We need to know why we’re robbing our children of the most precious treasure, and that’s their innocence.

Source: Des Moines Iowa GOP Debate
Dec 13, 1999

George W. Bush:
Appropriate to draw a moral line for children

Some people think it’s inappropriate to draw a moral line. Not me. For our children to have the lives we want for them, they must learn to say yes to responsibility, yes to family, yes to honesty and work. What can be done? We can give schools and
principals more authority to discipline children. We must encourage states to reform their juvenile justice laws. We must say to our children, “We love you, but discipline and love go hand in hand, and there will be bad consequences for bad behavior.”